For the Easter Baby

My friend from church just gave birth to her first (much anticipated) baby. She and her husband are high school sweethearts and I'm so happy for them.

The mommy was also a member of Lambs of God Household at her Catholic college. (Households are kind of like sororities.) So.... Spring baby + Lambs.... I had to make something cute.

It started with the hat:

I used Vanna's choice in pink for the inside of the ears, which reminded me I still had a blanket I used that same yarn in...

So I thought if I just added a set of booties & some little mittens I'd have my favorite gift in the world... a whole baby set!

I'm SO looking forward to dropping it off tomorrow! I hope mommy & daddy love it.

Favorite things

Danyelle of {dandee} did an awesome give-away in celebration of her 30th birthday. She made up a pretty package of her 30 favorite things. Today she asked her readers to share what their "favorite things" packages would include. Funny enough... some of mine match hers.

In no particular order, here are 30 of my favorite things (if I could afford such a package!):

1. Washi stickers

2. Mental_Floss Magazine

3. Le Petit Ecolier in Milk Chocolate

4. JooSweetie Keyring

5. Japanese Masking Tape

6. Best Cupcake Icing Tips

7. a "cupman"

8. my favorite eyeliner

9. just about anything by Jonathan Adler

10. HIMYM awesomeness

11. Paper straws

12. Set (only the best game in the world)

13. Some yum straight from California

14. Mexican paper flowers

15. fabric buttons from my favorite shop

16. Pirate's Booty

17. Chloe

18. Skin on dvd

19. single serving packets of Abuelita

20. an awesome project bag

21. Specher Root Beer

22. Modern Family

23. C. O. Bigelow Ultra Mentha Lip Shine

24. pilloncillo

25. African Rooibos

26. Photofinish Light

27. Suri Merino yarn

28. fresh homemade marshmallows

29. Stephanie Fizer notecards

30. Hate Mail

Of course, this year I'm turning 33... so I'd have to think of 3 more. :) Also, I'd have to win the lottery cause your homegirl has expensive tastes and you KNOW if I was buying all these things for a package, I'd have to get it all for myself too.

Go tell Danyelle what YOU'D put in your package!

On Being Proactive

I've gotten totally out of control on my spending. There are certain things I've somehow ended up stock-piling over the past 18 months. These things are make-up, wine & yarn. The make-up and wine I've gotten a handle on. The yarn on the other hand...

Remember how I'm on a yarn diet this year? Wanna know how many skeins I've purchased while on this "diet"?

90.

Yeah. 90 skeins of yarn. WHAT ON EARTH?! Now keep in mind, 62 of those skeins came in one box from Japan. But seriously? Where did the other 28 come from? And I'm going to be honest... that doesn't include acrylic. Yeah. There's more. You can take on, I'm gonna guess 20 skeins of acrylic to that.

I bought enough Bernat Satin for a small throw to more or less replicate this awesome blanket I saw on pinterest (though I'll probably do squares instead of hexagons because I don't like the edges).

I can also blame pinterest for another 4 or so skeins. I have a ton of Red Heart Super Saver (yuck) in turquoise and blue from making Special Olympic Scarves. So I decided to use the turquoise for a blanket like this.

Of course that meant buying red, sage & off white acrylic. Why not just make a blue & turquoise one to use up all the yarn and not buy more? Good question. Because I have a problem! That's why!

Then I bought yarn for my Lenten commitment, which was REALLY stupid because I already had a bag full of baby yarn.

So how am I being proactive? On my long weekend off I photographed my stash (minus the acrylic) and updated my stash page on Ravelry. I am now diligently matching up my 2011 gift list with projects in my queue.. and those projects with stash yarn I already have. I think I can get through all of 2011's "MUST Makes" with my stash.

I'm hoping to get my whole stash back out for a "Flash Your Stash" photo by the "official" day (April 1). Let's hope it's at least a teeny bit smaller than it is at the moment. :)

Are you participating in Flash Your Stash? Do you buy yarn just for projects or do you stash too?

Blogger Day of Silence

Join in a sort of "day of rest" from blogging tomorrow. Rather than post on your blog or read the blogs of others, take time to do something for the people of Japan. We suggest donating to Shelter Box USA.

Japan

On Thursday night the NET team came in. They all had dinner with me & then the girls spent the night while the guys went around the corner to stay at the home of one of my church friends. The guys came back for breakfast in the morning.

I was in a daze Friday because I literally stayed up the entire night watching the tsunami coverage on my laptop. I'm horrified at the loss of life and the incredible damage to that beautiful country.

It seems crafting- particularly crocheting & knitting- is joined tightly at the hip with charity. I don't know any crochet/knitters who haven't lifted a hook or needles to make a premie hat or afghan square or scarf for the homeless at some point. So it's no surprise that there have been tons of posts on Ravelry lately asking how we can help & where to send blankets/sweaters/hats...

The truth is, I don't know that any of that is going to help at the moment. In fact, while I've earmarked money for donation, I haven't actually donated yet because so few aid organizations are actually able to get into Japan at the moment. This article explains some of the reasons to wait a little while.

There are some ways to donate that are immediately helpful. The Huffington Post lists a bunch of organizations taking action and in need of our support.

But for those of you itching to stitch up something special right away for Japan, I've found one way to do it so far. If you knit socks, this guy is accepting sock donations. I'm sure he intends for people to buy socks and mail them, but who wouldn't love a pair of handknit socks at a time like this? Wool would be great because it stays warm when wet, too.

If, like me, you can't knit socks, I'd suggest making something for auction/raffle and donating the money.

Have you found any other creative ways to help Japan? Please share!

Lent

Sometime just before Advent last year I came across this great project on Ravelry. This lovely lady made a premie hat every day of Lent & donated them to a local hospital.

I've thought about it often since and was very happy to start up on Ash Wednesday! I'm a fast crocheter, though, so I've modified it a little.

I'm still making a hat a day, but some are premie hats (going to the NICU at my friend's hospital) and some are full term which I'm contributing to Bundles of Joy on Rav. They make all kinds of knitwear for the OB Ward at the Pine Ridge Hospital. There's a lot of poverty on the reservation and most people don't have anything to take their newborns home in, so I'm excited to be making full-term baby hats for them as well.

Even the full term hats only take about 15 minutes so when I feel like crocheting more I'm also making some little jackets, mittens and maybe booties. All of those will probably go to Bundle of Joy.

In the next few weeks I'll be sharing some other charitable knit/crochet projects I'm planning to work with! If you know of any worthy causes, let me know! I think I'd like to continue a commitment to charitable crochet/knitting throughout the year.

Recent Projects

I've been a bad blogger but a pretty good crafter. Life has been pretty busy, with the NET team coming next week, several baby showers, work being a little crazy & my own stuff going on. I hope to have time to go over all the fun things I've been making in detail soon... but in the meantime, here's a quick run down of the knitted & crocheted items I've completed recently:

Forest Vest

Made for Baby Flores. This is actually the first knit item I've ever cast off! I was pretty pleased to have completed it. There's some MAJOR flaws, but I still really like it. I've been on the hunt for good semi-solid/tonal yarns ever since this project. If you know of any good ones PLEASE let me know!

Granny Love

Made for Baby G. I took some grannies I've had for a while and put them together into a quick blanket. I love the retro feel.

Cuddly Sweater

Also for Baby G. Man... I love me some KnitPicks Comfy. It's so soft and has great stitch definition. This project was SUCH a learning experience. I had to rip back about 6 rows at one point!

Frilly Scarf

I just wanted something to throw on that would add some classy interest to my everyday wear. I've been wearing it pretty often and I love the femininity.

Rainbow Clutch

Remember when I talked about Knit Picks Chroma making me break my "no stash buying" rule? Well... this is what some of the Prism colorway ended up as. It's a pattern test for a gal on Ravelry. I'll go into detail on the project & include a link to the pattern once she's done with it.

What have you been working on?